Rolling canvas attracts plenty of attention

Saturday

Aug 17, 2013 at 12:33 PM

Cynthia Grau Staff Reporter @CyndiLeader

An unusual car that drew a lot of attention to itself was seen driving through downtown Pontiac Friday morning.Brian Gregory of Chicago, the artist known locally for his works in the entryway of the Route 66 Hall of Fame and Museum in Pontiac, was driving a very specialized Chrysler PT Cruiser around town and was more than happy with the attention it was drawing.He says that, as an artist, he is looking for his audience and sometimes artists have to find their audiences instead of waiting for the audiences to find them."The idea of the car was I really want to get attention," he admitted. "Nobody's going to walk up to you on the street. I can't stand in the museum all day long and wait for the people. I've only had the car for a few days (and it's already attracting a lot of attention)."Gregory said exactly what he was hoping for was happening. People were driving by slowly and staring and stopping him on the street and inquiring about how this car was created."This is an icebreaker and people all of a sudden are willing to cross the barrier and ask about it. It's an invitation," he said. "The real test is what will happen when I'm not on Route 66."The car, which was completed after the creation of a specialized vinyl car wrap, similar to shrink-wrap, was formed to the car with the application of heat. It doesn't do any harm to the exterior of the vehicle itself because there is no adhesive. He said that it is expected to last and he's hoping, as the car has 130,000 miles on it, that the car itself lasts 10 years.Gregory said he had the idea to create the exterior of the car because he is fond of doing large pieces of artwork and said they don't always show well on a smaller scale. He said, even with a car, one can look at the details of the artwork, which will reveal some of the inner workings that are missed on smaller works or when viewed further away."I put about 120 hours worth of work into the artwork. The first third of my whole process was just coming out, looking at the car and taking measurements to get the scale," Gregory said, adding, "Wherever I go, Route 66 is a generic road trip icon, so I can be in Florida and people will know what I'm talking about. The Pacific Coast Highway is a great ride, but nobody thinks of that as a national highway. Route 66 is kind of the American highway."Some of the local highlights of the car include bits of the Waldmire mural, the Pontiac Oakland Automobile Museum and the Wishing Well Motel. He said the artwork is drawn from the entire length of Route 66."I didn't choose my art, it chose me," he said. "Once you get stuck on something, you just have to work it out and finish it."